Almost 20 years after “Ugly Betty” put him on the Hollywood map, Michael Urie is constant to seek out new methods to showcase LGBTQ+ life via his work on stage and on display.
The Texas-born actor has constructed a profession out of embodying complicated queer characters, from a Nineteen Seventies drag performer navigating his relationship with an illiberal mom within the Broadway drama “Torch Song” to a hapless Angeleno who finds love in small-town New England in Netflix’s “Single All the Way.”
As for his present position on the Apple TV+ collection “Shrinking,” Urie says it’s given him the prospect to highlight a dynamic he believes will resonate with many LGBTQ+ folks, but has hardly ever been seen on mainstream tv. The present, which launched its second season this month, follows Jimmy Laird (performed by Jason Segel), a Los Angeles therapist who opts for a tough-love strategy together with his clientele whereas grieving the tragic loss of life of his spouse.
Urie portrays Brian, a lawyer and longtime pal from whom Jimmy had turn out to be estranged. The 2 males reconnected and smoothed issues over within the first season, with Brian ultimately enlisting Jimmy to officiate his marriage ceremony to his husband, Charlie (Devin Kawaoka).
Wednesday’s episode, “Made You Look,” finds Brian turning to Jimmy for recommendation as he contemplates the prospect of turning into a first-time father. By the episode’s conclusion, nonetheless, it’s obvious that Brian and Jimmy will quickly navigate some surprising twists of their friendship.
“When someone comes out of the closet, they begin their life as their true self,” Urie informed HuffPost in an interview. “The person they were before is still part of them, but that closeted [part] who was lying to whoever ― that’s no longer who they are. So when you have friendships from your days in the closet, they have to adapt to what it’s like now.”
He added: “At one point, Brian says to Jimmy, ‘If we met today, would we even be friends?’ I felt that sentiment, as a person who was in the closet at one point in his life and has straight male friends who bridged the gap. But I’ve never seen anyone explore it. So to do it on ‘Shrinking,’ which is so good at pinpointing mental health issues … I’m very proud and excited.”
The second season of “Shrinking” is airing as Urie is delivering a delightfully daffy efficiency within the Broadway revival of “Once Upon a Mattress,” starring Sutton Foster.
First staged on Broadway in 1959, “Once Upon a Mattress” is a comedic retelling of “The Princess and the Pea,” with just a few grown-up jokes thrown in for good measure.
Urie portrays Prince Dauntless the Drab, who lives underneath the watch of his overbearing mom, Queen Aggravain (Ana Gasteyer), and has all however given up hope of marrying till a “strangely energetic swamp girl,” Princess Winnifred the Woebegone (Foster), turns up at his citadel.
Within the 65 years since its premiere, “Once Upon a Mattress” has turn out to be a staple of highschool and group theater teams. Curiously, Urie wasn’t conversant in the musical ― which has been given a up to date replace by “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino ― when he was approached for the position. Nonetheless, he was desperate to reunite with Foster after the 2 labored collectively on the TV Land collection “Younger.”
“As somebody who’s not a trained singer or dancer, I’ve been chasing all the musicals I thought I was capable of, and this one was not on my radar,” mentioned Urie, who wrapped a run in Broadway’s “Spamalot” in January. “I was just game to be Sutton’s prince. She’s the most alive person I’ve ever been onstage with.”
As for the character of Prince Dauntless, he famous, “He’s still a kid, a grown man with arrested development and maybe a little Munchausen [syndrome] by proxy, who falls in completely earnest love and grows up before your eyes. By the end of the show, he’s become a man.”
Manoli Figetakis by way of Getty Pictures
Between “Shrinking,” “Mattress” and the discharge of a brand new big-screen comedy, “Goodrich,” Urie acknowledges that he’s a bit sleep-deprived as of late. Nonetheless, he took a second to mirror on his achievements final week when he joined the ranks of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Barbra Streisand by receiving a caricature at New York’s famed Sardi’s restaurant ― which, for a lot of actors, is an honor that’s second solely to receiving a Tony nomination.
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“I’m willing to bust my butt, which I think helps get jobs,” he mentioned. “In the theater, if you show people that you’re game and you’re tireless and always ready for a challenge, they’ll keep presenting you with them. TV and film is a bit more about being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes you get rewarded for your tenacity.”
